


blinding light (get too close to the sun honey and you get burned)

by pillowcreek



Category: The Bridge (Podcast)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - College/University, Anxiety, F/F, Falling In Love, Fluff, Grayromantic Roger Kaplan, Hook-Up, Jealousy, Lovers to Friends to Lovers, M/M, Mild Sexual Content, Pining, Sexual Tension, Slow Burn, Sorry Roger's Gut, minimal angst
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-06-22
Updated: 2018-06-27
Packaged: 2018-11-17 06:16:55
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 14,015
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11269683
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pillowcreek/pseuds/pillowcreek
Summary: Roger finds out the hard way what the problem with hookups is. But also what the best part of them is.Alternate summary: Don't sleep with your TA folks.





	1. Week One

**Author's Note:**

> I just really wanted to write a Bridge university au, okay? 
> 
> Chapter 1: in which Roger gets screwed multiple times, multiple ways. he only really likes one of them.

Roger woke up to a warm arm around his waist and gentle fingers in his hair. He turned his head towards them, trying to get more of the gentleness. It was soft and familiar, like coming home after being away for months or having a warm drink during a thunderstorm. There was a soft laugh from beside him in the bed and he opened his eyes. 

“I didn’t think you’d still be here,” he said, barely more than a murmur. 

The man gave him a quick grin. “I’m not here for much longer. I’ve got to run if I’m gonna make it to my first class on time. I just wanted to see your cute bedhead. You’re awfully adorable when you’re sleeping.” 

Roger tried to control the blush that he was sure was beginning to spread across his cheeks. “Shut up.” 

The other man laughed, the sound as bright as sunlight, lighting up the dim room. “Make me.” 

He gave him his best _are you fucking joking me right now_ look, but only got a wink in response. He eventually decided _screw it_ and pulled the man in close for a kiss. Kissing was harder than he had been expecting it to be, especially since the other man seemed about five seconds away from bursting into laughter again, but they managed to make it work. His hand was just curling into a fist in the pillow next Roger’s head when he remembered what he’d said with a start. 

“Shit, you’ve got to get to class.” 

The man’s laughter finally came out. “Really? That’s what you’re thinking about right now?” 

“Well, no… Not exactly… But still. You’ve gotta go.” 

The man ran a hand through Roger’s hair slowly, sighing. “Yeah, I probably should. It’s tempting to stay, but I shouldn’t miss the first day.” 

“It’s one of the most important. You get to meet all your TAs and find the unlucky sap who will take your notes for you the next time you go to a bar on a Tuesday night.” 

“Okay, you can’t judge me for that, you were there too. We’re both equally pathetic.” 

“Hm, I suppose I should give you that.” The man pressed a gentle kiss to the side of his neck and Roger tilted his head back despite himself. “Don’t think I’m gonna let you get out of this.” 

“Aw, come on. Why not?” He continued kissing down Roger’s neck. “Wouldn’t you rather I stayed here?”

Fuck if that wasn’t the most tempting thing Roger had heard in weeks. And Frank had considered moving out two weeks ago. “Class.” It was the only word he could manage to come up with with his lips on his neck like that. He looked cute but damn this man was a little shit. 

“But if I go to class there’s no guarantee that I’ll ever see you again.” His hands had slipped down to Roger’s waist by this point and his thumbs were moving in very distracting circles against his hips. 

“Phone?” Fuck, where had his concept of sentences gone? This man could not possibly be _that_ distracting. 

His smile seemed to be telling a different story as he grinned at him. “I don’t have your number.” 

“I’ll give it to you.” There’s a sentence. 

The man laughed. “You really want me to go to class, huh?” 

“Yeah.” 

He flashed him another quick sunshine grin before rolling out of bed and grabbing his phone from his jeans. “Whoa, you going to put some pants on?” Roger asked. 

He blinked back at him with those big brown eyes of his, deep and rich like melting chocolate. “Why? It’s not like you didn’t see it last night?” 

Roger sighed and lifted himself onto his elbows. “I guess you’ve got a point.” 

He rattled off his number, trying to ignore the little flip that his stomach did as the man grinned and told him, “Great! I’ll text you later tonight then!” 

He watched the man get dressed in silence, admiring the last glimpses of his naked flesh before they were covered up by clothes again. If the other man noticed him staring, he didn’t mention it. “I never did catch your name,” is all that he said. 

“What?” 

“Your name. You never gave it to me.” 

“Oh. I’m Roger.” It took him a moment before, “Wait, what did you list me under in your phone then?” He only got a wink in response and decided that it was probably better not to know. “What’s your name then?” 

“I’m Bertie.” Of course. A cute name for a cute person. 

Bertie placed his hands gently on either side of Roger’s body and gave him a quick kiss on the forehead. “Apparently I can’t miss class but I’ll call you later. You’re too cute to pass up on seeing a second time.” 

“Ditto,” Roger muttered as soon as he had left the room. 

* * *

The building that his seminar group was in just _had_ to be the worst one, of course. On the edge of campus, in a building that nobody came to, complete with the weird smell and lack of any sort of cohesive numbering system for the doors. Who designed these buildings anyways? At least the class he was teaching was mostly first years, so they’d probably be just as lost and confused as he was. But that also meant that they’d have even more questions that he’d have to answer which was never a plus. 

It also didn’t help that his seminar was supposed to start in two minutes and he still hadn’t found the stupid room yet. 

He finally found it about ten seconds before the seminar was scheduled to begin, hurrying into the room and rambling off a quick apology to the couple dozen students that were in there. 

He started off with a brief introduction and a basic rundown of the course, just in case some poor first year had accidentally wandered into the wrong classroom and was now horribly confused. It was pretty straightforward: history of science and technology, nice and easy to teach. Hopefully. 

Roger soon realized that he’d been relying pretty heavily on his notes and hadn’t really been looking around the room all that much like they were supposed to. Eye contact with the students to help them engage and all that. And that’s when he saw him. 

Back of the room, staring back at him with the same deer-caught-in-the-headlights look that Roger was certain had just come across his face. 

Bertie. 

Also known as the man who’d fucked him senseless last night. 

And also, apparently, his student. 

Shit. 

He tried to regain his composure and continue the seminar as normal and not think about the fact that his latest hookup was staring at him with those melting chocolate eyes or that he was still just as distracting as he had been that morning. He could do this. He had to do this. 

Thankfully the first class didn’t have much to go over and they were done within twenty minutes. Bertie looked like he was about to flee out the doorway or possibly the window, but Roger gave him a stern look, trying to communicate to him to stay there, even though he shared the _oh fuck just jump out the window that would be much less awkward_ feeling. 

Unfortunately they weren’t able to stay where they were as the next class began filing in before their group had even finished leaving, so Roger leads Bertie down the hallway until they found an empty classroom. It was difficult to do though because he kept trying to creep away slowly whenever Roger wasn’t looking, so it took a lot of stern glaring on Roger’s part to get him there. 

“Oh my gosh this is so awkward why did you bring me here?” Bertie blurted out as soon as the door closed. 

Roger blinked in surprise. That was… not the reaction he had been expecting. Honestly none of this was seeming like Bertie at all. Or at least not the Bertie that he had met last night. “Um, excuse me?” 

“You’re my _TA,_ this is so embarrassing I swear I didn’t know last night. I promise. I didn’t sleep with you just to get good marks I did it because you’re really cute and I really liked you and I’m not allowed to say that, am I? Oh my god am I going to be expelled for this?” 

Yep, definitely not the same Bertie. “You’re not going to be _expelled._ If anyone’s getting in trouble I am. Shit, how old are you anyways? You didn’t tell me you were a fucking first year.” 

“I’m not, I’m a fourth year. I’m only in that class because it’s required for my degree and I’ve been putting it off until literally the last minute.” His eyes widened even more if possible. “Oh my god am I not going to graduate now? I need this credit this year, this is the only semester I can take it. I can’t come back for another semester.” 

“Will you calm down? You’re _fine._ You’re just going to have to switch seminar groups.” 

Bertie shook his head quickly, lips pressed together tightly in a thin line. Roger tried not to think about his lips any more than that. “I can’t. This was the only one that worked with my schedule.” 

Roger swore under his breath. “I am _so_ screwed.” 

“How are you screwed? If we just don’t tell anyone…” 

“Oh yeah, and you expect me to believe that you’re going to trust me to be impartial? If I give you good marks then I’m showing favouritism, if I give you bad marks then you can report me and say that I’m being too hard on you to show that I’m _not_ showing favouritism.” 

“Or you can trust me.” Bertie reached out and took his hand. “Trust me that I’m gonna trust you. I’m not going to report you or anything like that. I’ll just treat you like it never happened.” 

That was almost worse. Roger pulled his hand away from him. “And if someone finds out?” 

“They’re not going to. We’re not dating or anything. It was just a one night stand the night before school started. We didn’t even know each other’s names. How were we supposed to know that you were my TA?” 

Roger sighed and ran his hands through his hair, resisting the urge to tug at it in frustration. He noticed how Bertie’s eyes tracked the movement and wondered if he was also thinking about how he did the same thing only that morning. “You should delete my number.” 

Bertie’s head tilted to the side and it took all of Roger’s self-control not to kiss him right then and there. This would all be so much easier if he weren’t so damn cute. “Why?” 

“It’s inappropriate. I’m your TA, you shouldn’t have my number.” 

Bertie’s lips twisted up into a smile. “I’ll think about it.” 

_“Bertie.”_

“What? I told you, it’s not listed under your name. No one’s gonna know it’s you. Besides,” he winked at him and Roger wondered how he had enough self-control to not pin him to the nearest wall, “I want to still be able to contact you after you’re no longer my TA and off-limits.” 

With that he turned and strolled out of the room, leaving Roger to collapse against one of the nearby tables. 

 _Yep,_ he thought. _I am so completely and utterly totally screwed._


	2. Week One (cont.)

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter Two: in which they all run into their soulmates.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The subtlety just flew straight out the window with this chapter, whoops.

Bertie threw his bag of textbooks over his shoulder. “Fuck this.” 

Etta attempted to do the same with her own bag of books and nearly toppled over. “Fuck!” 

Bertie grabbed her arm to keep her steady. “You okay?” 

“Yeah… How did you _do_ that?” she said, bewildered. 

“I’m a foot taller than you. It takes more weight than this to knock me over.” 

“Eleven inches, Bertie. You’re eleven inches taller than me. That’s not a foot.” 

“Etta, when you’re so short that you need to fight me over an inch, I don’t think it really matters anymore.” 

Etta pouted. “That inch is very important to me.” 

“I know, it’s your child. Come on, let’s go before I break my back with these books.” Bertie began to half-stumble his way out of the building that their bookstore was in. 

“Before? Mine already feels like it’s broken,” Etta groaned as she followed him. 

“Then why don’t you take it off your back?” 

“Because the other option is dragging it along on the ground behind me and that just feels pathetic.” Etta stumbled under the weight of her books and nearly crashed into a wall. Bertie caught her again. 

“You look more pathetic now than you would if you were dragging it.” 

“Well you don’t exactly look like Mr. Cool either,” she said. 

“At least I’m not falling down every three steps,” Bertie said. He held the door open for her as they left the building.

“I’m not falling down every three steps,” Etta said as she stumbled out and nearly tripped over the small drop in front of the door. “Okay so I forgot about the step but that doesn’t _mean_ anything!” 

“I think it means that having the books on your back really isn’t working for you,” Bertie said right before he was knocked to the ground. 

“Geez Etta, I know I was teasing you but really? How did you even get that strong?” he said at the same time that a low voice beside him swore. 

“Shit I’m sorry. I didn’t see you there, I was- oh fuck, are you fucking kidding me?” 

Bertie looked over to see Roger glaring at him like he was the last person that he wanted to see. Which, considering their current position, he probably was. 

“Did you just knock over my best friend?!” Etta said loudly a second before her foot landed squarely on Roger’s stomach. 

He wheezed. “Yes. It was an accident though, I didn’t see him.” 

“He’s over six feet tall! How do you not see a six foot tall Sasquatch?!” 

“Etta, I’m fine. You can relax.” Bertie had to squirm his way out of his backpack to get to his feet. “We’re right next to a corner, it could have happened to anyone.” 

Case in point, a woman ran around the corner just then and knocked over Etta. The two of them landed on Roger, who left out an annoyed groan. “Really Kate?” 

The woman leapt to her feet before helping Etta up. “Sorry! I didn’t see you there!” 

Etta only stared at her in reply. Bertie could see why: the woman was very, very pretty. Long black hair tied back in a ponytail, soft brown eyes, nice body. Yeah, Etta wouldn’t be yelling at this one. 

“It’s fine,” Bertie said for her. “It’s an easy mistake.” 

The woman smiled at him and Bertie could practically hear Etta drooling. She held her hand out to him. “I’m Kate. The loser lying on the ground is my friend Roger.” 

“Yeah, we’ve… we’ve met.” 

“Oh?” Kate cast Roger a questioning look and the man curled in on himself to avoid looking at her. “And you are…?” 

“I’m Bertie. And this is Etta.” 

“You’re- Ohhh!!” 

Bertie cringed. Clearly she had already heard about what happened. “Yeah…” 

“Wait is that the TA you hooked up with?” Etta blurted out. 

And there it went. The last shred of Bertie’s dignity. Goodbye shred, you will be missed. 

“Say it louder, will you? I’d love to get kicked out of grad school, that would be super great,” Roger said. 

“Why are you still on the ground?” Etta said. 

“It seems as good a place as any to die.” 

Kate rolled her eyes and dragged Roger to his feet. “Will you stop being extra for five seconds?” 

“No.” 

Bertie glanced around nervously. “I don’t think anybody heard…” The campus wasn’t exactly packed on a Saturday morning, but it was still worth double checking. Luckily the only other person he could see was lying in the grass outside one of the lecture buildings and he was pretty sure he could hear them snoring. 

“Wait would you actually be kicked out for that?” Etta said. 

Roger nodded. “Bertie could probably still transfer to another school, or he’d just get a mark on his record. I’d probably be kicked out though. And that’s why it’s really, _really_ important that you _don’t go broadcasting it to the entire quad._ ” 

Etta stared at him for a few seconds before turning to Bertie. “You need to get better at choosing your hookups. This one’s grouchy.” 

Roger facepalmed. 

“Etta, please,” Bertie pleaded. “We really can’t have anybody finding out. This has to stay between the four of us.” 

“Of course,” Etta said. “Just want to make sure you stick to people in your own league.” 

“Hey!” Kate said. “Roger’s pretty great… when he’s not being a grouch. Which is most of the time.” 

“What about you?” Etta said completely unsmoothly. “You seem pretty great.” 

Kate grinned. “I like to think so.” 

“Please don’t flirt with his friend, please don’t flirt with his friend…” Roger muttered. 

“There’s nothing in the rules against them dating,” Bertie whispered to him. 

Roger looked over at Bertie for the first time since the fall. Bertie felt his heart skip a beat in his chest. He had forgotten just how _brown_ Roger’s eyes were. He’d always thought that brown eyes were kind of ugly, his own included, but Roger’s were incredible. Not to mention that the rest of him was absolutely flawless as well. 

He realized suddenly that Roger’s lips had just moved but he hadn’t heard whatever sound had come out. “What?” 

Roger rolled his eyes. “I said, that may be true but it doesn’t mean that they should.” 

“Why not?” 

“Don’t you think it would make things awkward?” 

“Do you?” 

Roger shrugged. “We’d probably end up running into each other a lot more.” 

“Would you knock me over every time?” Bertie said teasingly, attempting to lighten the mood. 

His ears turned red. “No. We shouldn’t even be talking right now.” 

“Why? Is accidentally running into your student that you have a completely platonic relationship with against the rules now?” 

“Bertie.” 

He gave Roger his cutest smile. “What?” 

“Be serious,” he said, flustered. Good. He liked making Roger flustered, liked knowing that he could still have an effect on him even if they couldn’t act on it. 

“I’m completely serious. We’re not doing anything wrong. Unless you were planning on asking me to go to the bathroom with you in which case-“ 

“Please tell me you’ve never done it in a bathroom stall.” 

“Ew no, that’s so unhygienic.” 

“Bertie you would literally have another person’s genitals in your mouth what part of that is hygienic?” 

“The part where we ignore that I did that because it would get us in trouble?” he teased. 

 _Oh my gosh what am I saying why can I not stop speaking?_ his brain screamed out at the same time. 

Roger groaned and buried his face in his hands. “I hate you.” 

“Thanks I think you’re cute too.” _Stop speaking idiot!!!_

“Are you trying to get us kicked out?” 

Bertie sighed and lead him a few feet away from Kate and Etta, who were still caught up in their flirting. “I’m sorry. I should have laid off. I am taking this seriously.” 

“Then maybe you should start acting like it,” Roger snapped. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. “I’m sorry. I know you’re taking it seriously. I just…” 

“You’re nervous about getting caught. I am too.” 

“Then how are you able to just… do that? Flirt like there’s no problem?” 

“I don’t know. I guess I just… I don’t know,” Bertie said with a small shrug. “I just wanted to tease you and then I just… kept talking.” 

Roger sighed. “You need a better filter.” 

“If you think I’m bad, you should spend more time with Etta.” 

“Small yelling girl?” 

Bertie grinned. “Yeah. She’s the one who stomped on your stomach.” 

“Yeah, I don’t think I’ll be forgetting her anytime soon.” 

“She’s the best.” 

“Hm.” 

Bertie glanced back over at the other two. They were still flirting, if Etta’s stance was anything to go off of. He couldn’t help but feel jealous at that. He wanted to be able to do that and not get anxious about it. Flirting with Roger was so much fun. He’d left his apartment Wednesday morning thinking that he’d finally found someone that he actually wanted to call again because while yeah, the sex had been amazing, just talking and flirting with him at the bar had been _incredible._ He wanted that again. 

The end of the semester couldn’t come fast enough. 

“I should… probably get Kate and keep going. We shouldn’t stop for too long.” 

Bertie glanced Roger up and down quickly. He was dressed in exercise gear, though he looked unfairly attractive for someone who had just been exercising. Did this man ever look bad? “Out for a run?” 

“Yeah. We were supposed to be trying to beat our time, but that’s definitely not happening.” 

“Why not just take off however long you’ve been stopped from your final time?” 

“Sure. If I could remember how long exactly that’s been.” 

“Good point.” Bertie stared down at his shoes awkwardly, suddenly painfully aware of how long it had been since he had last exercised and of that little bit of tub he had around his middle. He usually didn’t mind it too much, but now he just felt self-conscious. Athletic people always did that to him: they made him hyperaware of all his little flaws and while he was sure that Roger wasn’t judging him for them, he couldn’t quite shake that feeling. 

“What are you even doing on campus anyways? It’s Saturday, shouldn’t you be at home sleeping?” 

“I’m not lazy!” Bertie blurted out. 

Roger gave him a confused look. “I didn’t say you were? I was just mentioning it because that’s what most people are doing at nine in the morning on the weekend.” 

“Oh. Well, uh, that is what I usually do, but Etta agreed to come with me to the bookstore before most people would be there because I don’t like trying to get through the crowds.” He left out the part where he usually had a panic attack and hid in the back until Etta found him and helped him outside. 

“Ah, yes well those crowds are a pain in the neck. Did you get all of the books you needed?” 

“Yeah. Including the one for your seminar which looks _super_ interesting and I can’t wait to-“ 

“I know it’s the most boring book you’ve ever seen, please stop with the fake voice,” Roger groaned. 

“Well since you asked so nicely…” 

“Why did you even buy that book? I could have given you my old copy of it.”  

“Why didn’t you tell me that _before_ I bought it?” Bertie said. “Now I’ve got to go back and return it and that’s awkward.” 

“You don’t like social interaction, do you?” 

“Not with strangers.” 

“I knew there was a reason I liked you.” 

“Huh. And all this time I thought it was because of my cute-“ 

Roger held up a hand quickly. “Please do not finish that sentence!” 

Bertie gave him another cute smile and decided not to tell him that Etta had, in fact, brought up the possibility of asking Roger for his old textbook. He also didn’t tell him that her suggested payment was a blowjob. “I was just going to say smile,” he said innocently. 

Roger rolled his eyes. “Just go and return it, will you?” 

“Sure thing.” Bertie got the book out of his bag. “Wait, how are you going to get it to me?” 

“Oh right. Uh… When’s your first class on Monday?” 

“Ten-thirty.” 

“Meet me outside the student centre before it. I’ll give it to you then,” Roger said.  

“Sure thing,” Bertie replied. “How much do you want for it?” 

“Oh, no money. There’s just one small task you can do for me.” 

“Yeah?” 

“Stop flirting with me.” Roger didn’t give him a chance to agree, turning and heading back over to Kate and Etta. Bertie sighed and picked up his bag. 

 _Guess that’s it then,_ he thought before following Roger. 

“It was nice meeting you,” Kate said to him. “And thanks for the number, Etta.” 

“Of course. You’d better call me,” Etta said. 

“Definitely,” Kate said before running off with Roger. 

Etta turned to look at Bertie. “Isn’t she perfect?” she said with a small sigh. 

“Yeah, sure,” he replied. “Come on, I’ve got to go return this book.” 

“He’s giving you his copy?” 

“Yep. Completely free too. Well, mostly for free.” 

Etta raised her eyebrows. “Mostly?” 

“There’s one condition: I have to stop flirting with him.” 

“Yeah, that’s going to be hard for you. You haven’t shut up about him all week.” 

“At least it’ll lessen my anxiety somewhat.” 

“Hm. True.” Etta slung her arm through Bertie’s. “Alright then lover boy, let’s go get your money back.” 

“Please tell me that lover boy’s not going to stick,” he said. 

“I doubt it. It’s a horrible nickname for you.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Follow me on tumblr @pillowcreeks, I post lots of (questionably) good Bridge content.


	3. Week Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 3: in which Roger is not jealous.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was hard to write please leave me love in the form of comments or kudos.

Roger nearly walked into Kate as he tried to dodge an undergrad who was on his phone and not paying any attention to where he was walking. “Is it just me or are the freshmen getting smaller?” 

“No, it’s definitely not just you. I think that one still had his braces on,” she said, glancing over her shoulder. 

“Follow up question: Are they also getting more clueless?” 

“Nope. That’s just normal freshmen brattiness. They’re used to being the kings of the school. It’ll take them a little while before they realize that literally no one gives a shit about who they are.” 

Roger went into the bookstore. “Let’s just get this over with. I don’t think I can deal with being around so many idiots for much longer before I yell at one of them.” 

“Please do. My Netflix expired and I could use the entertainment.” 

The two of them headed for the basement of the bookstore where the textbooks were kept. Kate had held off on buying her textbooks until she was certain of what she would be doing for the next semester and Roger was stupid enough to agree to come with her to buy them. 

“How is it still so busy? It’s the second week of class, are they all buying them one at a time?” he muttered under his breath. 

“Lots of people wait until after their first class to see if they even need the textbook,” Kate said. “Remember your Scottish class? You bought the textbook before the first lecture only to find out that it was “suggested” reading.” 

“And they wouldn’t let me return it because I bought it used. Yeah, I remember.” 

“Guess some of the idiots are smarter than you.” 

Roger did the mature thing and made a face at Kate’s back as she headed down the aisle. 

“There’s no organization to this place, how do they expect us to find anything in this mess?” she muttered as she scanned the shelves for her book. 

“Maybe it would help if you weren’t looking in the Psych section,” Roger said. 

“Oh.” Kate straightened up. “I could’ve sworn that was where the Toxicology books were last semester.” 

“They probably changed it again just to be annoying.” 

“Hm. Probably.” Kate frowned and looked at something over his shoulder. “Hey, isn’t that Bertie?” 

“What?” Roger turned around to see that yes, it was indeed Bertie. The man had somehow ended up stuck against one of the shelves surrounded by a hoard of first years. He seemed to be saying something quietly to them, but they didn’t appear to be listening. 

Roger looked over at Kate. “We should just ignore him.” 

“I dunno, he looks pretty helpless,” she said, smirking slightly. 

“I hate you. I hope you know that,” he said to her before walking over to Bertie and the hoard. 

“Excuse me,” he heard Bertie say as he got closer. 

One of the first years looked over at him briefly before turning back to her friend. 

“That means move, dumbass,” Roger said loudly and the first years all turned to look at him. The girl gave him a dirty look. “You heard me. _Move._ ” 

She scoffed and walked off in the opposite direction, the rest of the hoard following. Bertie relaxed visibly. 

“Thanks,” he said. 

“You need to be louder,” Roger said. “You’re too quiet.” 

Bertie bit his lip, obviously trying to hold back a smile. “Okay.” 

Roger decided not to comment on it. “Why are you here anyways? Didn’t you come and get all of your books on Saturday with Etta?” 

“I missed one. Turns out when your prof says something’s suggested reading, what they really mean is “we’re going to have entire lectures dedicated to discussing this book.”” 

“They just can’t be clear about that sort of thing, huh?” He glanced at the cover of the book. “What do you need a book about plant metabolism for? Aren’t you in engineering?” 

“It’s my minor,” Bertie said. “Botany, I mean. I like plants.” 

“Sounds like fun.” 

“Well I finally found it,” Kate said, joining them. “Only took what felt like a thousand years.” 

“Roger yelled at a first year,” Bertie said. 

“And I missed it? Come on Roger, you promised.” 

He sighed. “I didn’t _yell_ at her. Bertie’s exaggerating.” 

One of the store employees walked up to them just then. “Excuse me, but did one of you happen to yell at a first year girl?” 

The other two both pointed at Roger. He huffed. “I didn’t yell at her, I just told her to move out of Bertie’s way.” 

The employee gave Bertie a sympathetic grin. “You got stuck in the middle of them?” 

Bertie flushed and nodded. “I’m not good at being loud, apparently.” 

He laughed. “That’s not a bad thing. Some people like someone who’s a little bit softer.” 

“Yeah?” Bertie shot Roger a look. “See? I don’t need to louder. I’m fine just the way I am.” 

“I didn’t say you weren’t,” Roger muttered. 

“Oh sorry, are you two dating?” the employee asked. 

“No!” they both said quickly and a little too loudly. 

He smiled slowly at Bertie. “Good.” 

Roger didn’t think of himself as being a jealous person. In fact, jealousy was an emotion that he rarely felt. Annoyance, yes. Frustration, sure. Jealousy? Not so much. But seeing the bookstore employee give Bertie that smile and seeing Bertie get so flustered over it made him feel slightly like he might be ill. 

He lied to himself and said that it was just because they were flirting and watching people flirt was disgusting. 

It definitely wasn’t jealousy though. 

Because jealousy would imply that he had something in the vein of feelings for Bertie. And he certainly did not. Lust? Yeah, sure. You couldn’t spend time around somebody like Bertie and not feel some degree of lust (unless you never felt lust). Especially not if you’ve slept with him. Which is just completely unfortunate because Roger wasn’t exactly in a position to act on that feeling any time in the near future, so for now he was just stuck feeling slightly ill as some random asshole flirted with Bertie. 

“I get off at five,” the asshole said. “You still going to be around campus?” 

Bertie’s flush deepened. “Maybe. Maybe I’ll see you around?” 

He grinned. “I hope so.” 

The ill feeling increased slightly and Roger found himself saying, “Are you really supposed to flirt while you’re working?” 

The employee shot him an annoyed look. “Are you really supposed to yell at first years?” 

“Are you really-“ 

“How about we just stop trying to figure out what each other is supposed to be doing?” Bertie said, stepping in. He gave Roger a quick confused look before continuing. “I’m going to go check out. I’ll… see you later.” 

It was unclear who he was talking to, but judging by the smug look the employee was wearing, he certainly seemed to think it was him. Kate tugged on Roger’s arm. 

“Come on,” she said. 

They were halfway to the bus stop before Kate brought it up. 

“So,” she said and Roger groaned internally. _So_ was Kate’s way of beginning a conversation that she knew he didn’t want to have. “You were kind of weird back there.” 

“No I wasn’t,” he said, hoping that she would just leave it at that. 

She didn’t. “You kind of were. Jealous?” 

“No. Jealousy implies that I have feelings. I don’t.” 

“You could just be jealous about the fact that he gets to do something that you don’t.” 

“I really don’t care who Bertie flirts with. He can do what he wants.” 

“What about who he sleeps with?” Kate said. 

Roger sighed. “That too. I honestly don’t care.” 

Maybe he cared a little bit. Because if he was being truly honest, Roger would have to admit that he felt slightly jealous about the thought that Bertie might be seeing someone else, and slightly more jealous about the idea that he might sleep with them. But it was stupid. He had no right to be jealous. It was just a one-night stand and Bertie was his student now. He couldn’t be getting wrapped up in his sex life. 

That would be a lot easier to do if they hadn’t slept together a week ago and the memory wasn’t still burned into Roger’s mind. If he couldn’t still feel Bertie's lips against his skin. 

It’s a lot easier not to care about somebody’s sex life when you can’t picture them naked.

* * *

 The second seminar was almost as bad as the first. 

It was unfair, really, how distracting Bertie was able to be seemingly without trying. At the very least he could try to be distracting, and then Roger wouldn’t feel quite so guilty about being distracted. It was as if every little thing he did was the most captivating thing in the world. It made Roger want to either say screw it and throw away his future for one more shot with him, or throw a blanket over Bertie’s head to keep him from being distracting. He doubted that he’d be able to find a blanket that was large enough though. Bertie was rather tall. 

A large part of the problem was that Bertie seemed to have a bit of an oral fixation. He was almost constantly biting his lip or chewing on his pen. Which would be fine if his mouth wasn’t so damn attractive. Listening to students talk ended up being a lot harder than Roger had been expecting it to be, as he kept getting distracted and ending up thinking about what it would be like to kiss Bertie again. 

Luckily, he seemed to be doing a fairly good job at bullshiting his way through responses, or at least the students were nervous enough not to mention it. The one plus side to having mostly first year students was that they hadn’t quite yet figured out that TAs were nearly as much of disasters as they were, rather than being more put together like the profs were. They also hadn’t figured out yet that the profs were also complete disasters, but that knowledge wouldn’t sink in for a few years still. Roger was pretty sure that the students will have figured out that he was a disaster by about mid-October, if they didn’t figure it out by the end of this seminar because dammit he had spaced out again and had no fucking clue what the hell that student just said. 

Bertie came up to him after the seminar. Roger glared at him. He gave him that bright smile of his. “Great seminar. You’re lucky they stuck you with the first years, they didn’t even notice that you weren’t listening to a word they said.” 

“If they hadn’t stuck me with this group, I wouldn’t be having any problems in the first place,” Roger muttered. 

Bertie laughed. “So I’m distracting?” 

Roger glared at him. “What did I say about flirting?” 

Bertie grinned. “Fine. That answers my question, anyways.” 

He let out an annoyed huff. “Don’t you have some book clerk to be chasing after?” 

“Oh yeah, him.” Yes, him. Roger tried not to be annoyed at how easily Bertie seemed to have forgotten about him. Did people just flirt with him all the time? “Yeah, I dunno what’s going to happen there.” 

“What? He’s not off limits enough for you?” 

“No, I just don’t know him that well. We’re getting together later. Grabbing coffee, talking. You know.” 

“So it’s a date.” 

Bertie shifted uncomfortably on his feet. “No. Not a date. Or at least, I don’t think it’s supposed to be a date. I just want to get to know him a little bit better. You can’t really find out if someone’s horrific just from a couple of brief interactions.” 

“Sure you can,” Roger said. “People say horrific shit all the time.” 

He sighed. “You know what I mean.” 

“Hm.” Roger slung his bag over his shoulder. “Well have fun then.” 

“Yeah. Thanks?” 

“Are you asking me or thanking me?” 

“This isn’t weird, right? Like-“ 

“Bertie,” Roger interrupted him. “We’re not dating. Go on your non-date with this guy. Have fun.” 

“I know, I just…” Bertie took a deep breath. “You already know my thoughts about this whole thing. I just wanted to know yours.” 

Bertie left the classroom quickly, leaving behind a very confused Roger. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hey y'all! This is just a note to let you know that I'm back at uni (unfortunately I have not found my hot love interest yet) and am DROWNING IN READINGS WHAT THE FUCK WHY ARE THERE SO MANY PAPERS WHY AM I DOING TWO READING HEAVY PROGRAMS WHO LET ME DO THIS *ahem* anyways I'm already super busy and it's only going to get busier from here on in, so updates might be a little bit slow (case in point, this chapter was supposed to be up Sunday night. It's Saturday at 11:58 PM while I'm writing this. sooooo....) Please be patient with me for the next little while as I will be trying my best to be getting chapters out as quickly as possible and stick to the update schedule I've made for myself! 
> 
> You can always find me on my tumblr @pillowcreeks if you want to find out when the next update'll be or just give me some love. or Bridge headcanons. Both is good.


	4. Week Three

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Bertie says things won't get awkward.

If you’re a university student, there’s one thing that you know for certain, even if you’re about to fail all your classes: caffeine solves everything. 

Bertie drained the last of his coffee as he waved goodbye to Etta before heading into the library. He had a test in his design class next week and hadn’t even begun to study yet. He was about to take the elevator up to the third floor when he spotted someone familiar. 

“Kate?” 

She looked up from her book and smiled at him. Her hair was beginning to come out of the low ponytail she had it in and she looked like she was in need of a break. “Bertie. Hey.” 

“What’re you working on?” 

“I’m looking over this week’s work for the seminar I’m TAing. First year Toxicology students are the _worst._ ” 

“Oh yeah, Etta mentioned you were studying that,” he said, sitting down next to her. 

Kate grinned dorkily. “She talks about me?” 

“All the time. It’s getting kind of annoying.” 

“That’s adorable. Etta’s adorable,” Kate said. “I told her I’m studying Toxicology and she said “So you know how to poison me?” and when I said yes she said “That’s hot.” I’m going to marry this girl.” 

“You’re going to have to ask her out first,” Bertie said. 

Kate’s smile faded and she shut her laptop slowly. “Yeah… I uh, actually wanted to talk to you about that.” 

Bertie felt his stomach sink. “Oh no. But you said you really like her.” 

“I do!” Kate said quickly. “I really, really do! But I don’t want to ask her out if it’ll make things awkward for you.” 

“Why would it make things awkward?” 

“Because I’m Roger’s best friend and Etta’s yours. You’ll probably end up seeing each other outside of class.” 

“That’s fine. Why, does he not think it’s fine?” 

Kate rolled her eyes. “He’s always the cause of the awkwardness, so I think he’ll just have to learn to deal with whatever the hell he’s going through.” 

Bertie’s heart skipped a beat. “What’s he going through? He said he wasn’t interested, did he-“ 

“Whoa there Bertie, don’t get ahead of yourself,” she said. “Roger’s hella grayromantic. He’s not going to be into you for a while, if he ever is.” 

Bertie sunk down in his chair. “Oh.” 

“Hey, cheer up. What happened to that cute guy at the bookstore who was hitting on you? Didn’t you go on a date with him?” 

“It wasn’t a date,” Bertie said. “We just got a coffee, and it was terrible and boring and the most nerve-wracking thing ever. We had absolutely nothing in common, I was dying for half an hour before I lied and said I had class.” 

“Oh. Sorry about that,” Kate said. 

“It’s fine. I just…” Bertie groaned. “I dunno. This situation sucks, that’s all.” 

“Are you sure you’re fine with me asking Etta out? I won’t do if you’re not fine with it.” 

“Yes. Please, ask her out. It might get her to shut up about you for fifteen seconds so that I can actually get some work done.” 

“Because you’re doing so much of it right now,” Kate said. 

“I got distracted by you and being friendly to my best friend’s future girlfriend.” 

She rolled her eyes. “Go do your homework, Bertie. And stop feeling so mopey, everything’s going to work out fine.” 

* * *

The first thing Bertie did when he got home that night was check on Bob’s tank. Bob was the pet turtle that he and Etta - mostly Etta - owned ever since they moved in together in second year. He was swimming around happily in his tank and Bertie crouched down in front of it to watch him. He found the repetitive swimming motion soothing and it helped to calm him down after a stressful day on campus. 

The door to the apartment slammed open about ten minutes later and Etta burst in. “Bertrand! Bertrand, guess what?!” 

“Kate asked you out?” Bertie said. 

She stopped and stared at him. “How’d you know?” 

He grinned up at her. “I ran into her earlier at the library. She told me she was planning to.” 

Etta sat down next to him and sighed happily. “She’s just… so great. I’m so gay.” 

“She’s also really gay by the sounds of it.” 

“She’s a lesbian, it’s kind of in the definition.” 

Bertie laughed. “She’s really into you though,” he said. “I think you found yourself a good one this time.” 

“I hope so,” Etta said. “I kind of really need a good one after all the bad ones.” 

Bertie put his arm around her and gave her shoulder a quick squeeze. “I know. You two deserve each other. But if she does end up being crap and hurts you-“ 

“No offence Bertrand, but I really don’t think you could take her,” Etta said, cutting him off. 

“I could take anyone who hurt you. They’re the only people I could take, but I could do it.” 

“And I’d do the same for you.” Etta stood up. “You good with spaghetti for dinner?” 

“We don’t have any food, Etta.” 

“What?” 

“Yeah, we forgot to buy groceries again.” 

She groaned. “Okay, grab your coat. We’re getting food.” 

“It’s over twenty degrees out,” Bertie said. 

“Bertrand, just… okay? Okay?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the super short chapter! I thought I had enough ideas for week three but the scene with Kate ended up being short than I was expecting and it kind of fizzled out from there... The good news is that the next chapter is probably going to be longer than usual? maybe? so it should make up for this chapter. 
> 
> As always, I'm on tumblr @pillowcreeks


	5. Week Four

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which things get awkward.

_Roger_

_Hey Roger, are you busy?_

**Bertie why the hell are you texting me? This is incredibly inappropriate.**

_I know but it’s not my fault. Can I crash at your place for the next couple of hours? Etta has Kate over._

**What, and you can’t deal with having another person over?**

_You’re dense. Etta. Has. Kate. Over._

**Are you kidding me?**

_I wish I was._

**And you don’t have anywhere else to go? Like you know, a friend’s house? Or anyone other than your TA?**

_Nope._

Bertie showed up at his apartment half an hour later, looking appropriately embarrassed. “Sorry about this.” 

“It’s fine,” Roger said. “I’ll just tell Kate off the next time I see her.” 

“I mean, you can’t really blame them, can you? It’s not like they should have to put their relationship on hold because of us.” 

“I can still be annoyed.” He hesitated. “You’d better come to my room. Frank’ll be home soon and I don’t want you to have to deal with him.” 

“Frank’s your roommate?” Bertie asked as he lead him to his bedroom. 

“Yeah. He’s kind of an asshole.” 

“Yeah? How so?” 

“He drinks milk directly from the carton,” Roger said. 

Bertie made a face. “Gross.” 

“Yeah. And that’s just the start. He’s generally obnoxious.” 

“I’m so glad Etta and I met first year. I’ve never had to deal with a terrible roommate before.” 

“Just one who makes you go over to your TA’s place because she’s having sex, right?” 

“Can we like, not talk about that please?” Bertie asked, looking uncomfortable. 

“Sure.” He closed the door to his bedroom behind them and Bertie took a seat on his bed. Roger sat down at his desk and tried to focus on his paper and not think about what happened the last time that Bertie was in his room. Because it was definitely not a thought that he was having trouble getting rid of. Definitely not. 

“What are you working on?” Bertie asked. 

“A paper for one of my classes,” Roger said, refusing to look over at him. He knew that if he did, he’d see Bertie sitting there with his wide brown eyes and soft lips and wouldn’t be able to resist kissing him. And that would be a terrible idea. It was bad enough that he was even thinking about it. 

“What’s it about?” 

“Rural growth and development in 19th century Virginia.” 

“Sounds interesting.” 

“Why are you here?” 

“I told you already. Etta and Kate are-“ 

“I know you told me that part, but…“ Roger trailed off with a sigh. He turned to face Bertie, who looked very confused. “Why are you _here?_ Why not go to a friend’s house?” 

“I don’t really know anybody except for Etta,” he said, his shoulders raising as he squirmed. 

“Why not go to the library then?” 

“It’s dark,” Bertie mumbled. “I don’t like being on campus after dark.” 

He blinked in surprise. “How do you survive in winter?” 

“I try to avoid late classes and I walk very quickly.” 

Roger sighed. “So you really had nowhere else to go?” 

“Pretty much.” Bertie hesitated. “Look, I know this isn’t ideal-” 

“It’s pretty far from it, yeah.” 

“-but I’ll be out of your hair before too long,” he said, shooting Roger an annoyed look when he interrupted him. “I’m not bad company, am I?” 

“No. That’s the problem,” he muttered, turning back to his paper. 

“Yeah?” He didn’t have to see Bertie’s face to know that he was grinning. 

“You’re more interesting than rural Virginia.” 

“And you’re more interesting than the terrifying darkness of campus.” 

Roger snorted. “Thanks. I’m glad you think so highly of me.” 

“It was meant to be a compliment.” 

“Oh really? That I’m better than the dark?” 

“You compared me to rural Virginia,” Bertie pointed out. 

Roger rolled his eyes. “Right.” 

“I guess you must find it somewhat interesting if you’re studying it though, right?” 

“It’s interesting enough.” 

“What are you going to do after university?” 

“I don’t know yet. Teach?” 

Bertie laughed. “Really?” 

Roger glanced over at him. He was grinning widely and looked painfully cute. He really really wanted to kiss him. “What?” 

“I don’t know. It’s just hard to picture you as a teacher.” 

“I am literally teaching you right now.” 

“Yeah, but that’s just being a TA. Loads of people do that. Plus you slept with me, so I don’t really know if that bodes well for your future teaching career. Teachers aren’t typically supposed to sleep with their students." 

“I didn’t know that you were going to be my student,” Roger said, annoyed. Bertie winked at him before a sappy smile spread across his face. “What?” 

“I just imagined you teaching history to a bunch of little kids. It’s cute.” 

He turned back around before Bertie could see the blush spreading across his face. “Shut up.” 

“Aww, did I embarrass you?” He sounded delighted. 

“Don’t you have anything better to do than to be obnoxious?” he asked, his heart thumping loudly in his chest. 

“I’m not being obnoxious! I honestly think you’d make a great teacher. You’d just also make a very cute one.” 

“Bertie,” Roger warned. 

He sighed. “Sorry.” There was a soft rustling of sheets and slight creak of the mattress as Bertie lay back on his bed. “I don’t mean to make things difficult for you, you know.” 

“I know.” He just blurted things out without thinking. It was who Bertie was. It was annoying sometimes, but Roger was beginning to get used to it. 

“Do you think Kate’s serious about Etta?” 

“Yeah. Why? Do you think she’s not?” 

“No. I ran into her at the library last week and she seemed really into her. I just… I don’t know. I want them to be happy, but…” 

“It’ll complicate things even more,” Roger finished for him. 

Bertie sighed. “Yeah. Is that selfish of me?” 

“Are you planning on stopping them from being together?” 

“No.” 

“Then I think you’re fine.” 

The bed creaked again as Bertie sat up. He was quiet for a long moment before- 

“I went on a date with the bookstore guy.” 

Roger felt his heart sink. “I thought you said it wasn’t a date.” 

“It was kind of a date. I don’t know. He was into me. We got coffee. Doesn’t that make it a date?” 

“I don’t know. I haven’t been on very many dates,” he admitted. 

“Yeah, Kate-“ Bertie cleared his throat. “Anyways. It was terrible.” 

“And? Why are you telling me this?” 

“I don’t know. I just… thought you might be interested.” 

“I’m not.” 

Roger managed to get through most of a paragraph before Bertie spoke up again. 

“Are you really just fine with everything?” he asked. 

“You know I’m not.” 

“I don’t mean are you fine with being my TA after we slept together. I mean are you fine with me seeing other people. If you weren’t my TA, would you want to be seeing me instead?” 

“We can’t be having this conversation,” Roger said. 

“I know. But I need to know.” 

“I don’t know.” 

“You don’t?” Bertie’s voice brightened slightly. 

“No.” 

“Does that mean you might?” he asked hopefully. 

“It means that I’m not letting myself think about it,” Roger said. “And you shouldn’t either. We still have two more months of seminars together.” 

“Right.” Bertie sunk back down onto the bed. “Those are rough, aren’t they?” 

“Bertie.” 

“I’m just saying.” 

“Well don’t.” 

“Fine.” 

Bertie’s phone buzzed ten minutes later. 

“It’s Etta,” he said, getting up. “She said that I can come back now and she apologizes for the inconvenience.” 

“You told her you were coming over here?” Roger asked. He trusted Kate to keep their secret; he wasn’t so sure about Bertie’s talkative little friend. 

“She won’t give us away,” Bertie reassured him. “She wouldn’t do anything to hurt me.” 

“Let’s hope not,” he muttered. Bertie flicked the back of his head and Roger winced. “Okay, fine. I’m sure she won’t.” 

“Better. I’ll… I’ll see you on Wednesday?” Bertie shifted awkwardly on his feet, like he wasn’t sure what to do with his body. 

“Yeah. See you on Wednesday. Same as usual,” Roger said. 

Bertie sighed heavily. “Yeah. Same as usual.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And we're back! Sorry for the long hiatus, but regular updates should be back now (although they may be somewhat slow since I've got so many WIPs at the moment). 
> 
> I'm on tumblr @pillowcreeks


	6. Week Six

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Chapter 6: In which Bertie struggles with jealousy.

Fall at Triton University always swept in quickly and without warning. One day it was nice and warm, the next, it was cool and windy. Bertie did his best not to look too much like a popsicle as he made his way to class, but he was shivering underneath his thin jacket. He’d have to make sure to dig out his warmer jacket from wherever Etta put it in the spring. The storage closet would be the most sensible place, but since when was Etta sensible? Knowing her, she’d probably put it somewhere in her room so that she could give it to him when he needed it rather than making him look. But that was more complicated because now he had to look for it and then ask her. 

“Are you okay?” The voice came from a girl standing outside one of the coffee shops near campus. She was bundled up much more sensibly than Bertie was, in a scarf and warm sweater. With her blonde braids and beanie, she looked like she had just walked off a photoshoot for a new fall fashion line. 

“I’m sorry?” Bertie asked. 

She smiled bashfully. “Sorry. Just… You’re shivering. A lot.” 

“It’s cold.” 

“Why didn’t you dress warmer?” 

“I’m not sure what my roommate did with my warmer jacket.” 

The girl laughed lightly. “Did they steal it from you or something?” 

“No. She just offered to put it away for me over the summer, and now-“ he raised his arms in a shrug- “it’s gone.” 

She laughed again. “Sounds like you need a warm drink.” 

Bertie considered it. “A hot chocolate does sound nice…” 

She held out her arm to him. “Come on. I know one of the baristas so I can get you a discount.” 

He blinked in surprise before taking her arm. “Wow. Thanks. Were you just waiting around outside to offer a cold stranger a cheap drink?” 

She laughed. “No, I’m supposed to be waiting for my friend, but he seems to be running late. I’m sure he won’t mind if I go in early. What’s your name, cold stranger?” 

The two of them headed into the shop. It was toasty warm after the cold wind outside, and the smell of fresh coffee perked him up a little. 

“Bertie,” he said. “You?” 

“Laura. The name sounds familiar,” she said with a small frown. “Have you taken any classes in the theatre program?” 

“No, I wish. Is that your major?” 

“Yep. I’m pretty good at it if I do say so myself.” 

“I’m sure you are,” Bertie said. “I’m in engineering and botany. All sciences. Makes for great conversation with strangers.” 

“I dunno, botany sounds pretty cool. It’s unique. Not very many people are in that program. Must make it feel kind of like a family, huh?” 

“Sometimes. I suspect it’s that way in theatre though, right?” 

Laura shrugged. “It depends on the course. Sometimes I really like the people I’m working with and it goes great, sometimes it’s horrible because they’re all pretentious assholes.” 

“So it’s basically like any other university program?” Bertie joked. 

She laughed. “Yeah. Exactly.” 

“Bertie?” He looked over to see Kate standing behind the cash looking confused. “How do you and Laura know each other?” 

“You two know each other?” Laura asked. “Huh. Small world.” 

“Yeah, she’s dating my roommate.” 

“The roommate who stole your jacket?” 

“Yeah.” He turned to Kate. “Can you please tell Etta to return my jacket? I know she has it somewhere, but she hasn’t told me where yet.” 

“You’re the one who lives with her,” Kate said. 

“Yeah, but she responds to your texts as soon as she gets them. Mine have wait times.” 

“Aww, that’s cute,” Kate said with a dopey smile. 

“It’s adorable,” Laura said. “However, the loss of his jacket means that poor Bertie is very cold and needs some warming up. Got anything that might help? I believe he was in the mood for some hot chocolate?” 

Bertie nodded. “Some hot chocolate would be nice.” 

“Coming right up,” Kate said. “Laura?” 

She pondered the menu for a minute. “I’ll have a hot apple cider, please.” 

“Coming right up.” 

“So how do you two know each other?” Bertie asked Laura as they moved down the counter to wait for their drinks. 

“She’s my roommate,” Laura said. 

“Ah, I see.” 

She checked the time on her phone and huffed. “Where the hell is he?” 

“Your friend hasn’t texted you?” 

“No. It’s not like him to just leave me waiting. He must have gotten tied up with a student.” 

“TA?” 

“Yeah. Most of my friends are grad students, so they all have to deal with obnoxious undergrads. I, however, am still one of the obnoxious undergrads.” She grins. “I get back at them for all the complaining by making them come to my improv nights.” 

“You do improv?” Bertie asked. 

“I know, it’s dorky. But it’s just-“ 

“So cool!” 

Laura looked surprised. “Do you really think so?” 

“Of course! Improv sounds like such a hard thing to do. It’s acting, but extra difficult. That’s so cool that you do it regularly,” he said. 

She blushed. “I mean, I guess if you say it like that. My friends all hate them cause some of the actors there are really bad, but if you wanna come, I could text you the address?” 

Bertie nodded enthusiastically, so Laura pulled out her phone to exchange numbers. By the time she was done sending him the information, their drinks had arrived but her friend was still MIA. 

Laura blew on her drink, the stream rising around her red cheeks and making her look even more like a model than she had before. Bertie felt his heart skip a beat as he watched her. “I really don’t know why he wouldn’t have text me by now, he’s usually pretty- Oh, for goodness sake!” 

She began walking towards the front door as a customer came in. Bertie’s heart leapt up into his throat as he recognized them. 

“And where have you been?” Laura asked. 

“One of my students wouldn’t shut up. I would have texted, but my phone died,” Roger said. 

“Well you’re lucky I found someone to keep me company.” 

“Kate’s working, Laura, you shouldn’t bother her…” He trailed off when he noticed Bertie standing by the counter. Bertie gave him a small wave and felt his cheeks heat up. 

“This is Bertie,” Laura said, not noticing the sudden tension. “I met him outside because he looked like an icicle. Apparently he’s Etta’s roommate. Etta’s Kate’s girlfriend, remember?” 

Roger was still staring at Bertie. “Yeah, I remember Etta. I… One second.” 

He pulled Laura off to the side. His hand rested on the small of her back as he talked to her in a hurried whisper and Bertie felt a stab of jealousy. He touched her so easily, like it was the most natural thing in the world. He had never touched Bertie like that, even before he was his TA. 

Bertie was hit with a sudden, horrible thought. _Was this a date?_ Laura had said that she was meeting a friend here, but maybe this was just an early date and they weren’t officially dating yet. But Kate had said that Roger was grayromantic and uninterested in anyone at the moment. And she wouldn’t lie to him, would she? But that was a few weeks ago, things might have changed since then. This could be a new development. 

Or he could be jumping to conclusions and this could be exactly what it looked like: a meeting between friends. Friends who were just very comfortable around each other, like Etta and him. It was no big deal, clearly. 

He had to know. 

The two of them returned to Bertie and he relaxed slightly when he noticed that they weren’t holding hands. That was a good sign, right? Holding hands was something that couples did and they clearly weren’t a couple. 

Or maybe they were just a couple who didn’t like to hold hands. 

“So you two know each other too, huh? Small world,” Laura said. 

“Remarkably tiny,” Roger said, glaring at Bertie. 

He smiled nervously. “Yeah. Funny how things work out, huh?” 

“It’s hilarious,” he said dryly. “So you probably have to get to class, right? And there’s that huge assignment you’ve got due next week, remember?” 

Bertie got the hint. “Yeah, I should definitely be going.” 

“Aw, really?” Laura asked. “Are you sure you can’t-“ 

“Nope, that assignment’s really big. Worth a good chunk of his final grade,” Roger said. 

“Okay. Well I’ll text you, yeah?” 

Bertie smiled. “Yeah, I’d like that.” 

Roger rolled his eyes, although Bertie couldn’t tell whether his annoyance was at having yet another connection between the two of them or because Bertie would be texting his girlfriend. He really hoped it was the first one. It was probably the first one. 

Probably. 

Bertie tried to study that afternoon, he really did, but he just couldn’t focus. He couldn’t stop thinking about Roger and Laura. Which was frustrating not only because it meant he couldn’t get any work done, but also because he really shouldn’t be jealous. Because it wasn’t like he could date Roger anyways. Or at least, not for two more months, anyways. And that was only if Roger wanted to date him. 

Besides, Laura was so cool. How could he be jealous of someone who was so nice and funny and clearly talented. She was wonderful. He should be happy that Roger had someone so great in his life, especially since he had Bertie making his life more difficult. He needed this. He deserved this. 

But even though he shouldn’t be jealous, Bertie still was. He had finally found someone who seemed almost perfect for him, and he wasn’t even allowed to think about wanting him. Well, thinking about it was probably okay. It wasn’t like thinking about dating Roger was hurting anyone. They were totally professional when they saw each other. Roger even gave him just as many exasperated looks as he did the other students. 

Thinking about it was fine. He just couldn’t act on it. And that was easy. Completely and utterly, totally easy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr's @pillowcreeks. Comments and feedback are appreciated! Hope you enjoyed!


	7. Week Seven

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Bertie is pretty sure.

“Hey Bertrand, do you- Why are you moping?” Etta paused mid-knock. 

“I’m not moping,” Bertie mumbled into his pillow. 

“Uhh, I’m pretty sure you’re moping.” She sat next to him on the bed. “What’s wrong?” 

“I think Roger has a girlfriend.” 

“Really?” He could hear the surprise in her voice. “How’d he manage that?” 

“By being gorgeous and smart and-“ 

“Okay, we’re stopping there. Are you sure?” 

“Pretty sure. Like eighty-five percent,” Bertie said. 

“That’s not sure,” Etta said. 

“It’s sure enough,” he said. 

“Look.” The mattress springs creaked as she shifted. “Why don’t I just text Kate and ask her? And then we’ll be one hundred percent certain.” 

“No!” Bertie bolted upright. “You can’t tell Kate!” 

Etta raised an eyebrow. “Why not? She already knows that you like Roger. What’s the big deal?” 

“It would be so embarrassing!” His stomach churned just thinking about it. “I mean, what if it’s true? Imagine how humiliating that would be, I’d seem so oblivious and pathetic.” 

“Kate wouldn’t think that.” 

“She might.” 

“Bertrand. Come on,” Etta said, somewhat exasperatedly. “It’s _Kate._ She’s not going to judge you.” 

“I don’t want to ask her.” 

“Fine,” Etta said with a heavy sigh. She lay down next to him and stared up at his ceiling. “What do you want to do then?” 

“I don’t know. I guess I’ll just… figure it out on my own,” Bertie said. 

She snorted. “Yeah, that’s definitely not going to be awkward. “Hey Roger, do you have a girlfriend?” Way less awkward than just talking to Kate.” 

“I’m not asking him either.” 

“So how are you going to figure it out?” 

* * *

Bertie had never particularly enjoyed the seminars outside of the opportunity to watch Roger for an hour without feeling guilty about it. Theoretically he could also watch him in class, but then he’d get distracted thinking about how soft his hair was and how nice it was to run his fingers through it and he’d miss five minutes of the lecture and have no idea how the hell they ended up talking about clock towers when they had just been talking about catapults. And while he definitely still missed out on material in the seminars, he at least _looked_ like he was paying attention. 

Today he actually was paying attention though, hanging onto Roger’s every word and action in case anything hinted at the fact that he might be in a relationship. Was he less annoyed by students asking questions about things that he just covered? Did he have that slight hint of a smile at the corner of his mouth, the one that he got when he was happy and trying to hide it? Did he generally just sound happier and brighter? 

It didn’t seem like it, and Bertie allowed himself the tiniest bit of hope that maybe, just maybe, Roger was still single. Now he just had to gain the hope that he would stay that way until the end of the semester. And that he would actually want to date him. So maybe Bertie needed a lot more hope. He could find it. 

He went up to Roger after the seminar finished. “You did a good job today.” 

He glanced up at him, looking suspicious. “What do you want?” 

Bertie held up his hands. “Nothing. Just wanted to tell you you’re doing well.” 

“Hm. I wish I could say the same for you.” 

“What’s wrong with what I’m doing?” Unlike half the class, Bertie actually knew what Roger was talking about most of the time. When he wasn’t staring at his lips. 

“You’re… How do I put this delicately?” He paused thoughtfully. “You need to work on your oral skills.” 

Bertie choked out a laugh. “Really? Because I’m pretty sure you thought my oral skills were just fine when-“ 

Roger’s hand shot up to stop him. “Don’t finish that sentence.” 

Bertie gave him an innocent grin. 

He rolled his eyes, scowling. “You know what I meant.” 

“What? I’m bad at talking in class?” 

“I’m not really sure what you’re trying to say half the time,” Roger admitted, heading out into the hallway as the next class began filing in. Bertie followed him. “You start talking and then go off rambling and it’s very confusing.” 

“My rambles are always on-topic,” Bertie said. 

“They’re really hard to follow,” he said. 

“Okay, so I ramble. Fine. I’m still doing better than half the people in the seminar.” 

“You sound terrified to speak half the time.” Roger looked over at him, frowning. “It’s weird. You do fine when it’s just the two of us, but as soon as you have to talk in seminar, it’s like you forget how English works.” 

Bertie felt a hot flush creep over his face. He knew exactly what Roger meant because it was true. He did forget how English worked because he forgot whatever words he wanted to say because all of a sudden everybody was looking at him and he could feel their eyes on him and just _thinking_ about it made his skin crawl. But he wasn’t about to tell him that. He would just look at Bertie with that same judging look that everyone gave him. That _you’re a grown ass adult, you should be able to handle a few people looking at you. It’s just talking, what’s the big deal?_ look. And he didn’t think he could handle getting that look from Roger. 

“I know how English works,” he said instead of _I have anxiety and talking in front of people is my waking nightmare._

Roger snorted. “Yeah. Right.” 

“Besides, what does it matter if I don’t do well in large group settings? I’m fine one-on-one and I can easily make friends. Even if they do all seem to be your friends.” Bertie flashed him a quick grin. 

He groaned. “Don’t remind me. I can’t believe you met Laura. Out of literally thousands of people on campus, she had to meet you.” 

“She was really nice,” Bertie said, watching Roger’s face for a reaction. 

“Yeah.” 

“Cute, too.” 

The corner of his mouth twitched. “Sure.” 

Bertie felt his stomach drop. Of course. Of course they were dating. Of course he was stupid enough to let himself hope otherwise for even just a few minutes. How long had it been going on? Probably just a few weeks. Kate would have told him otherwise. She wouldn’t have just let him make a fool out of himself. She was better than that. Kinder. 

Oh god, what was he doing still talking to Roger? He was just going to say something stupid and embarrass himself and make everything so much worse. He had to go… somewhere. Away. Just anywhere not here. 

“Well I’ve got to get to class!” Bertie said loudly. 

Roger raised an eyebrow. “You okay?” 

“I’m fine!” he said, still too loud. 

“Okay…” 

Bertie hurried off in the opposite direction and found himself a spot around the corner of a building near the loading docks. There were no trucks around, so it was quiet enough that he could call Etta. 

“Hello?” Her voice was groggy, as though she had only just woken up. 

“Hey.” 

She picked up on the sadness in his voice instantly. “What happened?” 

“He’s dating her.” 

“Did he say that?” 

“Pretty much.” 

“Pretty much like he actually said “I am dating her” or pretty much as in-“ 

Bertie interrupted her. “Can you buy some ice cream? I have class in half an hour, but I think I’ll need it when I get home.” 

Etta was quiet for a long moment. “That pretty much, huh?” 

“Yeah,” he said quietly. 

“Okay, bud. I’ll see you in a couple of hours. Cookie dough?” 

“Yeah. Or chocolate fudge ripple if they don’t have it.” 

“Sure thing.” 

Bertie hung up and buried his face in his hands. This was stupid. It wasn’t even worth getting upset over. They had never even had a relationship, it _didn’t matter._

Or at least that’s what he tried telling himself. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr's @pillowcreeks. Comments and feedback are appreciated! Hope you enjoyed!


	8. Week Nine

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which a confession is made.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guess who's back??????

“We’re here.” Etta hopped off the bus and headed down the street, Bertie right behind her. They had been instructed not to dress up and to be ready to gamble away all of their loose change because everyone at the game would be a broke college student unwilling to part with more than a few bucks. 

Etta had invited Bertie to the poker game a few days ago, insisting that it was a better way to spend their Halloween than lying on the couch, watching horror movies and binging on mini chocolate bars. Bertie had been surprised that Etta had decided to pass on their annual horror marathon, but he would be lying if he said he wasn’t relieved. Horror was low on Bertie’s list of favourite genres. 

She had found out about the game from a friend. Apparently, this friend’s friend hosted the game every year and they needed more players because some of their regulars were unable to make it due to work. Etta hadn’t told him this friend’s name, and as Bertie began to recognize the area of town they were in, he realized why. 

He grabbed Etta’s arm, pulling her to a stop. “This friend wouldn’t happen to be Kate, would it?” 

Etta immediately put on her innocent face. “No, of course not. Why would you think that?” 

Bertie sighed. “And her friend is Roger. Of course.” 

“I know you don’t really want to be around him right now, but-“ 

“I want to be around him. I just completely embarrassed myself in front of him and will die of said embarrassment if I have to spend an hour in the same room as him, let alone an entire evening. Also there’s that whole thing where we’re supposed to be less than platonic so that Roger doesn’t kicked out of grad school.” 

“I know. But no one there will blow it. Kate promised. It’ll be fine.” 

“Great, so the only thing I have to worry about is embarrassing myself horribly and spending the entire evening with the guy I have a crush on who is completely unavailable. That shouldn’t be hard at all,” Bertie said bitterly. 

Etta patted his shoulder. “That’s the spirit.” 

Roger looked about as happy to see Bertie as he would have been to open the door to a very angry bear. “What are you doing here?” 

“I invited them,” Kate called from somewhere further in the apartment. 

Roger’s head snapped around to glare at her. “You did what?” 

“What, am I not allowed to invite my girlfriend to meet my friends?” she asked, joining them at the door. 

“Not when she brings _him_ along,” he said, shooting Bertie a dirty look. Bertie ducked his head, ready to bolt for the elevator. 

“I didn’t want him to be lonely,” Etta said, giving Bertie’s hand a quick squeeze. “Kate said it would be alright.” 

Roger’s glare turned back on Kate. “Really?” 

“Wouldn’t want him to be lonely,” she said. 

He sighed. “I hate you.” 

“Love you too,” she said, grinning. She grabbed Etta’s hand and pulled her off into the apartment. 

Bertie hung around awkwardly in the doorway. “So… It’s good to see you again?” 

Roger shot him a dirty look. “Don’t say anything to anyone,” he said coldly before following the other two. 

Bertie scurried after him. “What, I can’t talk to anyone? At all?” 

“I meant anything that’ll make _it_ obvious.” 

“What exactly would I say? I don’t typically use my sexual history as an ice breaker.” 

“Keep it down,” Roger hissed. “That’s the sort of thing I mean. You spout things without thinking. Please, for once, use your brain before talking.” 

“Bertie!” Laura came over, looking delighted. “I didn’t know you were coming!” 

Bertie felt his heart sink into his stomach. Of course she was here. Why wouldn’t she be? “Laura. Great to see you again,” he said weakly. 

She gave him a quick hug. “Roger, why didn’t you tell me he was coming?” 

“I didn’t know,” Roger said, not looking at either of them. Bertie’s heart sunk all the way to the floor. 

“Ah, of course. Kate?” He nodded. “So is Etta here too then?” 

“Kate took her to meet Harley and Lemaire,” Roger said. “You should go too.” 

“I’ll come with you,” Bertie said, glancing over at Roger quickly. 

They headed through to the kitchen where Etta and Kate were talking to a man with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a short person with dark curls. Etta and the latter were eagerly comparing heights. 

“This is the girlfriend?” Laura asked. 

“This is her,” Kate said. 

“Hi, I’m Etta,” Etta said, holding out her hand with a wide smile. 

Laura grinned and shook it. “Pleased to meet you.” 

“And you are?” The long-haired man was looking at Bertie. 

“Bertie.” He gave him as sweet a smile as he could muster with his stomach in knots. Meeting new people was already anxiety-inducing, add to the fact that these were Kate and Roger’s friends, and he was in a whole new anxiety sphere. 

The man’s mouth dropped open and he grabbed Laura’s arm. “Oh my gosh, he’s adorable. Laura. Laura. Look at him. He’s so cute.” 

“You said that out loud, sweetie,” Laura said. Etta giggled and shot Bertie an excited look. He blushed and ducked his head. 

“Oh.” The man blushed and shrugged awkwardly. “Whoops.” 

“That’s Lemaire. I’m Harley,” the other new person said. “They/them pronouns, please.” 

“Nice to meet you,” Bertie said. 

“Is Roger still sulking?” Kate asked Laura. She just rolled her eyes in response. 

“He’s sulking?” Harley asked, suspicious. 

Laura and Kate glanced awkwardly at each other. “Uh…” 

“He doesn’t like me much,” Bertie said. 

“What did you do?” Harley asked. 

“Please, he could’ve done literally anything,” Lemaire said. He slung his arm around Bertie’s shoulders. “Don’t worry about it. Roger doesn’t like anyone much. You can pay him back by kicking his ass at poker.” 

“Doubtful,” Etta said. “Bertie has the worst poker face.” 

“Good, I won’t be the only one completely out of money by the end of the night,” Harley said. 

“I’m glad that my imminent loss of wealth excites you,” Bertie said dryly, beginning to relax. Harley and Lemaire were friendly and seemed to like him so far. He hadn’t been the first one to make a complete fool out of themself. Off to a good start, by all measures. 

Harley patted his shoulder. “Aw, don’t worry about it. I’m sure Lemaire would be more than happy to reimburse your three dollars in dimes with a cup of coffee.” 

Bertie blinked in surprise while Etta and Laura giggled. Lemaire flushed beside him. “Shut up, Harley,” he said. They winked at him. 

Roger stuck his head into the kitchen. “You folks coming or what?” 

“Yeah, yeah, hold your horses,” Laura said. “We’re just introducing ourselves to the new people.” 

“Hm.” Roger glanced over at Bertie and Lemaire and his eyes darkened. “Just hurry it up,” he said before leaving. 

Laura rolled her eyes. “We’d better get out there.” 

“He’s moodier than usual…” Bertie heard Lemaire mutter to Harley. 

“You can tell when he’s moodier?” they muttered back. 

There was an empty seat beside Etta, much to Bertie relief. Somewhat less relaxing was Lemaire taking the seat on his other side. Harley snorted in laughter, resulting in Lemaire pinching them under the table and Roger shooting them a sharp glare. 

“You know that poker means that you two can’t cuddle, right?” Bertie teased as Kate took the other seat beside Etta. “Seeing each other’s cards definitely counts as cheating.” 

Etta looked him dead in the eyes. “I’ll take that challenge. Kate, take your cards.” 

“Yes dear.” Kate held her hand close to her chest as Etta climbed into her lap. 

Etta held out a hand to Bertie, smirking triumphantly. “Pay up.” 

Bertie wrinkled his nose. “Oh, shut up.” 

“Off to a rough start there, Bertie,” Lemaire said, grinning as Bertie dug around in his pockets for a toonie. 

“Just wait. I’ll get her back.” 

“You’d better not break my chair,” Roger warned. 

“If we break it, I’ll buy you a new one,” Kate said, her voice slightly muffled as she buried her face in Etta’s back. 

Laura sighed happily. “That’s so gay. I wish I had a girlfriend.” 

Bertie almost felt his neck break as his head snapped up. “Girlfriend?” 

Laura shot him an amused look. “Yeah. I’m a lesbian.” 

“You are?” 

“You didn’t know that?” Half the table stared at him in shock. 

Bertie squirmed nervously. “No, I thought-“ He glanced at Etta. 

She jumped in to save him. “How do you not have a girlfriend? You’re adorable.” 

“I know right? Any girl would be lucky to have me,” Laura said, grinning. 

The conversation died off as they began to play and they soon became too distracted hurling insults across the table to notice Bertie quietly slipping outside to the balcony halfway through the game. He sighed as the cool breeze swept over him, brushing away the stress of meeting new people and spending time around Roger. 

As though summoned by the mere thought of him and determined to break Bertie’s calm, the balcony door opened behind Bertie and Roger stepped out beside him. 

Bertie sighed. “What do you want?” 

“Just wanted to make sure you were alright,” he said. 

“Why wouldn’t I be?” 

Roger shrugged. “You seemed pretty surprised to hear that Laura’s a lesbian. I know you had a bit of a crush on her, so-“ 

“Wait. You thought I had a crush on Laura?” Bertie stared at him in astonishment. 

“Didn’t you?” 

“No! What gave you that idea?” 

“You said she was cute and nice. Isn’t that what people say when they like someone?” 

“No! That’s what you say when- Never mind.” 

Roger shrugged. “I don’t know how you alloromantics work. You’re very confusing.” 

Bertie huffed in frustration. “You’re the one who’s confusing!” 

He raised his eyebrows. “I’m confusing? Really?” 

“Yes! I thought you were dating Laura and- Ugh!” 

“Why would you think I was dating Laura? Laura’s a lesbian.” 

“I know that _now!_ I just- You were meeting her for coffee, and then were annoyed to see me, so I thought maybe I was crashing a date and that’s why you were mad, that maybe she didn’t know you were queer, and having me around would make it awkward and-“ 

Roger held up a hand to cut him off. “Whoa. Slow down. You thought we were on a date because we were meeting for coffee and I was annoyed to see you?” 

“Yes,” Bertie said meekly, knowing how ridiculous that sounded now. 

“Bertie, that would have described literally anyone who I was meeting then. I’m always annoyed to see you because this is hard. Being around you in seminars is hard enough, I don’t need to see you around my friends too.” 

“Oh. Right.” Bertie slumped against the railing, feeling stupid. Of course that was it. He knew that. He’d just forgotten it when he had gotten wrapped up in jealousy and insecurity. 

Roger leaned against the railing next to him. “You really thought I was dating Laura?” 

He blushed. “She’s cute and you seem to like her better than me.” 

“Yeah, because being around her doesn’t risk my degree or job. She also doesn’t look at me with doe eyes. Much easier being around someone who doesn’t have doe eyes.” 

He huffed. “I don’t look at you with doe eyes.” 

“Yes you do. They’re impossible to ignore and if anything’s going to get us found out, it’s them.” 

“Fine. I’ll stop looking at you with doe eyes when you stop being cute and unavailable.” Bertie shot Roger a small smile. He rolled his eyes. 

“What happened to no more flirting?” he asked. 

“You called me impossible to ignore.” 

“I meant it as a bad thing.” 

“Jerk.” 

Roger snorted. “That’s better.” 

They stood there in silence for a minute, listening to the cars rushing by on the road below. Then: 

“I’m sorry if I hurt you,” Roger said. 

Bertie looked over at him. “What?” 

“Being angry whenever I see you. I’m sorry if that hurt you.” 

Bertie blushed and stared at his hands. “It’s fine.” 

“It’s not. I don’t want to hurt your feelings. I’m just… worried, that’s all.” 

“It’s hard to imagine you worried about anything.” 

Roger laughed. “Yeah? Well it’s pretty much all I do now.” 

“You shouldn’t worry. We’re not going to get caught. I…” Bertie hesitated. Part of him wanted to tell Roger the truth: _I have anxiety and I get terrified over everything but I’m not terrified now because yes, getting caught is scary, but you make me less scared. You make me feel safe._ But another part of him couldn’t handle what he knew Roger’s reaction would be. Either good - _You can’t say that sort of thing_ \- or bad: _What kind of adult is terrified of everything? How do you expect me to love someone like that?_

He decided to tell him a half-truth. “I trust our friends. They won’t tell anyone.” 

“They’re not the only ones we have to worry about,” Roger said. 

“They’re the only ones with proof. If anyone else says anything, we lie. They can’t prove we slept together, and having a crush on your TA isn’t anything new or against the rules.” 

Roger raised his eyebrows. “A crush?” 

Bertie’s face felt like it was on fire. He hadn’t meant to say that. “Don’t act like you didn’t know,” he muttered. 

“I… didn’t. I thought you just wanted to hook up again.” 

“I mean, that would be nice too, but… I like you. I like who you are, even if you always seem unhappy to see me. I like how I feel when I’m around you. And I want to keep being around you. Even after this semester.” 

“Bertie, I-” 

“I’m sorry,” Bertie said quickly. He knew what Roger was going to say next and he couldn’t bear to hear it. How stupid did he have to have been to say what he just did? _Stupid, stupid, stupid,_ stupid! “I’ll… I’ll see you on Wednesday!” 

“Bertie-“ 

He was back inside the apartment before he could hear what Roger said. He shot Etta a desperate look before rushing into the hallway. He was waiting for the elevator by the time she caught up. 

“What happened? Did he say something to you? I’ll kill him,” she said. Etta hugged him tightly. “How awful a death does he deserve?” 

“Nothing.” Bertie wiped his eyes. He hadn’t realized he’d started crying. “I just… I was an idiot, that’s all.” 

“Do you want to talk about it?” 

“Not really.” 

“Okay. Do you want to go buy overpriced candy and watch bad romcoms?” 

“Yeah.” 

“Okay.” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My tumblr's now @thenightcrowd. Comments and feedback are appreciated! Hope you enjoyed!

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up @pillowcreeks on tumblr.


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